The Hazel Court site opened on Monday of this week (April 10) and replaces a site at Foss Island, the old site closing for the last time on Sunday night.
 York's new 1.3 million recycling centre at Hazel Court is aiming at a 60% recycling rate for waste received |
York council were able to improve on their original plans for the site when the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs pledged 338,795 towards the project.
Rachel Buxton, waste administration officer at York, told letsrecycle.com that the additional funding allowed the council to improve its specification for the site. An additional 18,500 was also provided by the Waste and Resources Action Programme for a communications plan.
The split level facility will have a one-way system and will take in cans, glass, cardboard, textiles, books, shoes, electrical equipment and fluorescent tubes. It will also accept household and trade waste.
Ms Buxton said: “The old site was very basic, recycling rates were not very high. The aim of the new site is to encourage recycling through its ease of use. Hazel Court has replaced our busiest site, so it should lead to a high recycling rate.”
Improvements
The Hazel Court site is one of three household waste recycling facilities in the city, all of which are currently undergoing improvements in order to reach a 60% recycling rate at the sites.
In August of last year the Beckfield Lane facility had a layout change and saw an increased amount of recycling facilities added, while the Towthorpe site is currently undergoing changes.
The recycling centres compliment the council's current kerbside service, which is available to 60,000 properties. Households on the scheme receive an alternate weekly collection of garden waste, cans, glass, plastic and paper. Around 10,000 households are also offered cardboard collections.
Ms Buxton said that the council is planning on rolling out the cardboard collections to the remaining 50,000 households by the end of this year.
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And she added: “We have been concentrating on our alternate weekly service, but we are now looking further a field, such as flats. We need to look at them and find out what service we can provide for them.”
The council has also said that it expects to be able to announce it achieved a 24% recycling rate when the 2005/06 figures are released. The estimated rate means that it has easily achieved its 18% target. York city council deals with 122.250 tonnes of household waste per year.
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